


The Art of Faking It

by gonelike_achoo



Category: K-pop, NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Art, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Football | Soccer, Friendship, High School, Volleyball, two couples
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28130559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gonelike_achoo/pseuds/gonelike_achoo
Summary: Lee Aera had one nickname, Na Jaemin's fangirl, everyone knew her for that. Everyday, since the day she claimed to be his biggest fan, she sat in the bleachers to watch the football team practice. She's done it everyday without fail. But she faces a little problem, Kim Yuri, her best friend seems to have developed something for her idol, and looks like Jaemin floated the same way.She faced a huge dilemma and figured that the only way out of it was an even bigger act, the art of faking it.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Original Female Character(s), Na Jaemin/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work is inspired by the shoujo manga, risouteki boyfriend.

**1: Na Jaemin’s Fangirl**

“Let’s go Na Jaemin!” The open field was empty, that was except for the soccer team that was having their after school practice. So, it was rather uncommon for someone to sit around and watch the players practice around the field. Even more eye catching was the female cheering for one of the boys on the field, when it was merely a practice run and she was literally the only person sitting in the bleachers. The whole scene may be weird for others, but to everyone involved in the team it never feels like practice if she wasn’t cheering for her favourite player. Thus, came her nickname ‘Na Jaemin’s fangirl’.

“Seriously, in this heat Aera?” A sports bag gets dropped beside her as she turns around to face her best friend who was obviously straight out of her own practice herself. Her pony tail tightly tied up, she wasn’t even in her uniform, instead she was wearing a tracksuit. It was what her best friend, Yuri, usually wore after her training.

“My passion to cheer on him doesn’t falter, whether it rains or shines!” She exaggeratedly reaches for the sky. “Even on extreme sunshines like today!” She then puts her hands to her side extended as if she was a plant getting sunlight through her arms.

“Did you at least put sunblock on?” Yuri puts Aera’s arms down as she checks on her reddening skin. “You didn’t!” She glares at Aera as she pulls her down to sit down on the bleacher and dug into her huge sports bag. She then began rubbing sunblock all over her friends arms and then her face.

“Did you forget to put sunblock again?” Another person climbs up the bleachers with his bag and his iconic paint stained uniform. 

“Honestly, she’s such a child.” Yuri sighs as she seals her sunblock, something she doesn’t exactly bring for herself. She was a volleyball team member and she rarely practices out in the sun.

“If I had a friend like you, I would most likely turn into one, too.” Renjun takes the seat right next to Aera.

“Aren’t we friends though?” Yuri reminds him.

“We are,” Renjun takes his bag off, “but we aren’t as close as the two of you.”

Then at this same moment, their coach blows his whistle as he calls for the team to gather around him. For a few moments, the open area goes silent as the three friends sit there watching them. Once Renjun and Yuri appeared in the bleachers, they all knew it was time for the practice to end. They were like the school bell, but it was after school hours and they came in a form of persons.

Then they huddled together to chant and as that echo into the open space, Aera stood up with a smile on her face. “That’s my signal!” She does a cute salute toward Yuri and Renjun before hopping down the bleachers as if she was a tiny animal going down the stairs. 

“You did great, Jaemin!” Aera appears by his side as he begins to clean up his stuff scattered around the bench by the field. 

“Thanks!” Jaemin pats the top of her head lightly before turning back to clean his stuff. “Aera, can I borrow the next volume of that manga you lent me, I’ll return the one I previously borrowed after the weekend.” 

Aera couldn’t help but smile as Jaemin blabbers off about borrowing her manga. “Yeah, no problem!” 

“Right,” Jaemin puts the last item in his bag and gives her a small smile before turning towards the other four members of his friend group, “I’ll be changing first!” Jaemin jogs towards the locker room. That was what she expected out of him, not him walking slowly and looking towards the bleachers. Aera stands there and watches the odd exchange she never noticed between Jaemin and her best friend, Yuri. Jaemin had his eyes on her and it was so obvious that even with his back against them she could tell where he was looking. Jaemin waves towards her direction and Aera’s eyes wait for Yuri’s response. However, she didn’t like the uneasiness in her best friend’s expression as her eyes went from Jaemin to her. 

“I never noticed that before,” Aera stands there in complete shock.

“You mean, you’ve never noticed Jaemin’s crush on Yuri?” Yangyang couldn’t believe what he was hearing. 

“Everyone practically knows about it,” Jeno agrees.

“How come no one told me?” Aera turned to look at the four boys who were all busy with their own stuff. 

“Well,” Shotaro shrugs his shoulders, “we all thought you sort of knew already.”

Haechan takes a deep breath in and walks towards her direction. “There’s more to it than that,” Haechan puts his arm over her shoulders, “there seems to be something going on between them.”

“And Yuri didn’t tell me?” Aera’s eyebrows knit together as she can’t help but hide the extreme worry on her face.

“Well, she does think you like Jaemin,” Jeno points out standing right beside Haechan and Aera with his stuff ready to go. 

“We’ve been through this before, right? I don’t have--” 

“--any romantic feelings towards Jaemin. It’s simply just fangirling for him!” Shotaro cuts her off even before she could finish her sentence. One sentence that everyone has heard a bit too much of already. 

Aera stomps her feet, because that’s all she can do. She crosses her arms over her chest and hunches forward. The only thing in her mind was how much she’s affected her best friend’s possible romance. For everything Yuri has done for her and probably sacrificed for her, why did this need to be added as well. There must be some way to get her just accept this romance freely without feeling burdened by her fangirling best friend.

“Is she holding back because of me?” Her eyes search for answers from the four boys. 

The only response she got were averted gazes and silence. Did their silence mean ‘yes’?

“Then what should I do?” Honestly, there was no one other than Yuri to ask about this stuff and since they were the people closest to Jaemin they might have the answer to her questions.

Again, she was met with averting gazes and silence, that was except for Haechan who began to contemplate out loud. He puts his free hand on his chin while the other arm continues to rest on her shoulder. He takes deep breaths in and out before a little light bulb appears by his head, or that’s how it looked like for the other who could only guess by his actions. 

“I have an idea, but it probably won’t be easy to achieve.” He proposes with gentle nods of his head.

“What is it? I’ll do anything for Yuri.” Aera grabs Haechan’s sweaty shirt as her eyes bore into his with desperation.

“Finding someone you genuinely like,” Haechan meets her eyes and in dead seriousness he tells her his idea. The whole group grows silent for a few seconds. Yangyang, Jeno and Shotaro exchange looks behind Haechan and Aera’s backs. 

“But I don’t have someone I like.” 

Haechan takes his arm off her shoulders and returns to his stuff. “Well, Aera, that’s your problem to solve.” He gives her one last smile as he heads towards the locker rooms with his bag. 

At this moment, Jaemin returns to the field and in an instant he climbs up the bleachers to greet both Renjun and the girl he was probably head over heels in love with, Yuri.


	2. Art Supply Shop

2: Art Supply Shop

“Aera! We’ll be leaving!” His father calls out to their shop attached to their home. She couldn’t exactly see her parents leaving since she was rushing to get into the shop and man it for the day, just as she has been doing from the time people actually took her seriously on the counter. Aera, though she doesn’t like to admit it, actually likes looking over the shop. She likes the smell and she loves the feeling of restocking the shelves with items. In all honesty, this shop feels like a scene straight out of a ghibli film and it was probably the reason why she loved it.

Not to mention the scarcity of people coming by to buy items. 

The door’s bell rings and it echoes through the shop, without double checking on who it was, she initially thought it was just her parents who happened to have forgotten something. 

“Aera?” That was until a different voice called out her name. She lifts her head and takes in the image in front of him, there was something different about Renjun, she couldn’t exactly point out. He actually dresses quite neatly, button down and pants, nothing out of the normal, but it didn’t feel like the Renjun she was used to. 

“You could at least say ‘hi’.” He points out as he gives her a little smile, one that was quite different from the usual Renjun. He turns around and begins picking up stuff from the shelves, as if he had memorized this place just as much as she did. 

Oh, he doesn’t have paint all over him, or paint that just didn’t leave his clothes. She finds the answer to the question that kept repeating in her head. 

“Looks like you know the place,” she leans her elbow on the counter and tilts her head as she watches him. His hands, much slender and kept than the boys of the soccer team, very faint signs of veins on his hand, ran through the countless tubes of paint. 

“I live close by, so I come by when I need to,” he shrugs as he puts more items into his hands. Renjun lifts his head and turns towards Aera, “do you usually watch your customers that intently?” 

Aera coughs in reply and stands up straight. “I...It’s just,” she grabs her shirt by the collar and begins pulsing it back and forth as if the air conditioned shop lacked cold air, “h-how come I’ve never seen you here before?” 

Renjun walks to the counter with a playful smile on his lips. “I know I look good, you don’t have to hide it.” He teased.

“I’m sorry, what now?” She moved her head forward as she slowly closed and opened her eyes before giving him an odd look. 

“I’m joking!” Renjun laughs at her sudden change in expression. Though there was a certain look in his eyes that made her quite conscious of herself, it wasn’t disgusting, just different from usual.

“Is this all?” She decides to shift the subject onto the huge amount of paint he put in front of her. Though she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the amount of things that he put in front of her. 

“Yeah,” Renjun nods his head with a little shoulder shrug, “pretty much.” 

Aera nods her head and goes through the items scanning them one by one and giving them one final quality control. As she scans the last item she begins to notice Renjun checking around his pockets, he digs his hands through his front pockets then to his back before muttering under his breath ‘shit’.

“Did you forget your money?” 

Renjun takes a deep breath in before giving her an apologetic smile. “I’ll get my wallet, I live close by--”

“You can just pay for it tomorrow,” Aera immediately cuts him off. She takes the bag over the counter and hands it over to him. Though she did struggle getting it over the counter that stood a bit too high for her, though from Renjun’s side it was quite cute to look at. 

“Are you sure about this?” Though he did reach out for the bag, he never took a step away from the counter feeling a little bit guilty about what was happening. 

“It’s fine!” She pushes the bag further away from the counter pushing Renjun along. “I mean it’s not like you can run away from me. We see each other everyday, remember?” 

Renjun nods his head slowly. “One last time, are you sure about this?” 

“I said its fine, just take it home now and pay me tomorrow!”

He tries to open his mouth again, but the persistent way she was staring at him made it impossible to ask one more time. 

“I owe you big time. If there’s anyway to pay you back I would.” He finally lets out a deep breath of air as he offers her a huge smile. 

“It’s nothing--” Aera just stops talking mid-way. Her eyes went down to her hand and did some gestures as if she was adding one and one together. Her head snaps up with a little scary smile on her face as a light bulb shines brightly by her head, or that’s how it appears to look from Renjun’s perspective. All it lacked was an actual effect with its iconic ‘ting’ sound. 

“This doesn’t look good,” he mutters to himself without Aera noticing at all. Her smile was sending shivers down his spine and with every chance he had he slowly took a step back. 

“Aera, I really need to get going.” Renjun, without even waiting for a reply from her, turns around and leaves the art supply store. 

“Renjun, I have a--” Aera finally snaps out of her little thinking bubble only to realize that the person she needed was gone. She finally has an answer to convince Yuri that she didn’t like Jaemin that way. It was an insane idea, but it was full-proof and even if it did fail both Jaemin and Yuri would be too deep in their relationship to even do something about it. I’m intelligent even Aristotle is shaking, she compliments herself.

The other boys told her to look for someone else, even if it meant faking what she feels about the person. Though, that wouldn’t be enough would it? She needed to actually make Yuri believe that she didn’t see Jaemin romantically. Aera needed something more than that, she needed to take one step ahead. She doesn’t just need to fake someone she liked, she needed to fake a relationship. 


	3. Proposition

3: Proposition

Aera stands right outside his room, to her this part of their grade was untouched territory. There were some familiar faces but a majority of them just seemed so unfamiliar. Even the way the campus looks from the windows in front of their door looks different. 

"Is Renjun here?" She finally gathered enough courage to ask one of the girls standing by the door. The two girls looked at her for a few seconds before nodding their head. They both turned towards their room to call out the boy she was looking for. 

Renjun walked out of the room and all she could do was watch him walk by and it was almost impossible for her not to notice the stares people were giving him everytime he walked by. Was he usually the type to attract attention? She couldn’t help but feel like her half assessed plan wouldn’t work out, but now wasn’t the time to doubt.

“Are you here for the payment?” Renjun walks up to her digging out of his back pocket for what she assumed to be his wallet. 

“Wait,” she stops him, “can you come with me for a sec?” She grabs his hand and pulls him out of his room and into one corner of the floor where there was barely anyone. Just that oddly deserted place in the hallways during the morning rush of students coming in. When they arrived, she let go of Renjun’s hand before leaning against the wall. 

“You don’t like me paying in front of people?” He asked her confused about the sudden change of venue. 

Aera doesn’t reply. She begins playing around with the end of her hair and staring at it as if it was the most interesting thing in her proximity when numerous other people turn their heads to the boy who was standing in front of her. “Here’s the thing,” she says in one breath out. 

Then came the awkward pause. 

“What is it, Aera?” Renjun leans in closer to check on the girl who hasn’t even lifted her head since pulling her here. 

She takes one deep breath in and let’s it out with a bit more force. She raises her head up only for her jolt back at the proximity between her and Renjun. “Can you move back a bit?” She gives him a lopsided smile.

“Oh, sorry!” He immediately stands up and rubs the back of his neck. He bites down on his lip getting a bit awkward with the fact that he just made her uncomfortable. 

“Renjun!” She calls the attention of the boy who just turned his head towards the other direction, but as she calls out his name he turns back towards her. “Before anything else, you can pay me now,” she puts her palms forward ready to accept his payment.

“Right,” he digs his wallet from his back pocket and pulls out the hefty amount he spent yesterday. He hands his payment to her, but with his back against everyone who was passing by it wasn’t exactly how it seems. All they could see was this boy standing a bit too close to the girl who was basically hiding behind this person, with both their hands extended it was almost impossible not to misunderstand what was happening between them.

“Is that all--”

“There’s one more thing,” she immediately stops Renjun from talking.

“And what is that one more thing?”

Aera licks her lips and takes a deep breath in. “Didn’t you say yesterday that you owe me a favor, right?” She lowers her head and looks at him. She waits for a reaction, in his case it was a small nod of his head. “Before anything else, don’t freak out, okay?” 

“Why would I freak out?”

“Let’s pretend to be dating.” 

Then it was followed by silence. At first Renjun thinks he misheard, making his ears move a bit at the sound of words. Then he blinks a couple of times as if he was reassuring himself that what he heard was correct, before his eyebrows knit together. At the last phase even his mouth began to react accompanied with the tilting of his head at the girl who was only giving him a lopsided smile. “I think I heard it wrong. Please, tell me I heard it wrong!”

“And what did you hear, exactly?” This time, Aera leans in closer.

“That you,” he points at the girl in front of him, “Aera, Na Jaemin’s fangirl, is asking me,” then he points to himself, “Na Jaemin’s best friend, to pretend to date each other?” He enunciated each syllable and word so slow that it probably took him a whole minute to finish his sentence.

“That’s exactly what I said,” she nods her head slowly, “but you have to hear me out!” She grabs unto both of his arms to pull him closer so that no one else could properly hear what she was going to tell him. Though, it was getting harder for people passing by not to mistake that anything was happening between the two of them.

“Is it because Jaemin has feelings for Yuri and she probably feels the same about him?” Renjun raises his eyebrows at the girl whose facial expression changes immediately. 

“You know about that?” She leans back as her hands, instead of leaving his arms, slide down to his hands. 

“Everyone knows about it, Aera.” 

“Then you probably know about Yuri holding herself back because of me.” She looks away from him as she unconsciously squeezes his hands. 

Renjun stands there watching her, and only now did he realize that they were holding each other’s hands. All he could do was sigh at the image in front of him, her head was probably thinking of ways to convince him. 

“So, you came up with the idea of pretending to date someone so that you can assure Yuri that you don’t actually like Jaemin romantically?” Renjun leans in closer once again, this time lowering his back a bit to meet her eye to eye as if he was talking to a child. “Am I right?”

Aera simply bites her lips and nods her head.

“Then shouldn’t you try to persuade me even more?” Renjun tilts his head to the right, exactly how someone would talk to a child.

Aera sighs. “I don’t know how to! I mean don’t you want Jaemin to be happy in a relationship as well because that would make Yuri happy too! I mean they look cute together so why not, right? I just want to see her happy and I want to see Jaemin happy too! Shouldn’t we help them since they’re both our friends! Plus, didn’t you say you owe me a favor, pay me back this way! Plus, I could give you a free canvas everytime you buy at our art supply store! Please! Just do it for them!” She rambled on and on while Renjun only nodded his head slowly.

“No take back on the free canvas?” Renjun raised his eyebrows as he stood straight again.

“Yes! No take backs!”

“Well, miss Aera, I think we already have a good amount of people fooled.” Renjun raised his arms to her sight and it was only now that she noticed that her hands were gripping tightly onto his hands. Aera’s eyes grew big as she began to take in the surroundings, people were passing by and Renjun was no stranger to attention. Aera slowly takes her hands away from his as she could only give him a sheepish smile with her shoulders raised.

“Then, we’ll talk about this later, miss girlfriend.” At the exact moment Renjun sends her off, the morning bell rings, now they both need to head back to their respective rooms. Though Renjun didn’t just turn around to let her go, now with the hallways filled with people even if this was that odd part of the hallway where no one stays in, he puts up a show. 

Renjun leans down and whispers directly into her ear, “let’s meet at the room after class.” His breath was so close that Aera couldn’t hold back the warmth coming to her cheeks as she felt a tingle from her ear to her neck. 

Indeed his little action didn’t go unnoticed as people that were standing by his room saw exactly what he did. This was going to spread like wildfire, wasn’t it? She thought to herself as she watched him enter his classroom. 


	4. Fooling Them

**4: Fooling Them**

“I don’t understand why you asked me to come here?” Aera stands by the window of the empty art room, she could slightly see the fields as the soccer team began their practice. It was usually around this time where she would sit in her usual spot and watch the soccer team practice, it was one of those things she looked forward to the most. She sighs and turns towards the boy sitting in front of an easel. “Did you just ask me to come here to watch you paint?”

“Aera, aren’t you the one who wants to convince them that we’re dating?” Renjun puts his paintbrush down and takes off the useless fabric that was protecting his clothes from paint since he still somehow gets paint on his uniform. 

Aera takes a seat on the bench in the art room. “Yeah.” 

“Well, what we’re doing right now is part of that plan,” Renjun takes a seat beside her, a bit too close from how he usually sits with her in the bleachers. “Right now, Jaemin and the rest of the boys are probably looking for you.” Renjun plops his elbows on the back rest of the bench and stretches his neck from side to side. 

“They’re looking for me?” 

“Yes!” Renjun immediately turns his head towards her. “It’s because you’re constantly there to watch over them, but right now you aren’t there. You know who else would get shocked not seeing you seated there on the bleachers after her practice?”

“Yuri!” Aera sits up straight and is almost smiling from ear to ear as she listens to Renjun.

“Exactly!”

“So, you called me here to begin to convince them that we’re actually dating?” Aera for a few seconds was like a balloon taking out its air as she returned to her slouching position. “Then we’ll be walking there together right before they leave.” She huffs to herself and nods her head.

Renjun only watched her various changes in expression as she came to realization of calling her here. “But we aren’t going to waste time here, though I did just plan to do my works,” he fake coughs at her, but at the end she did point it out to him, “so instead, we’re going to lay our ground rules.” Renjun stands up from the chair to get a piece of paper and pen from his bag. 

“Are we going to be this thorough about it?” Aera slides away from Renjun to give space to the piece of paper that was put down in between them.

“I don’t think you understand who we’re trying to fool here,” Renjun rolls his eyes at her. “We’re trying to fool our closest friends, Aera. If they feel something is off with our relationship they would immediately find out.” Renjun slams the pen down. “Even more,” he leans in closer, probably putting some creases on the piece of paper as he puts his weight on it, “we have four more people to fool and the four of them are quick to catch on.” He moves back and faces the piece of paper once again. “So, we have to have rules to make sure that this relationship would last at least a few weeks.” 

“A few weeks?” Aera tilts her head.

Renjun licks his lips and sighs, even avoiding any eye contact with her. “You see Jaemin, once he finds out we’re doing this for him, would drop everything to not inconvenience us.”

“Really?” 

“He’s like that as a friend,” he purses his lips together as he nods slowly. “So, we have to make sure that he’s too deep into their relationship to drop it,” he turns back to face her meeting her eyes in absolute sincerity, “because we both don’t want our friends to end up hurt.”

Aera shakes her head up and down a bit too enthusiastically. 

Now, they begin their planning stage. “So, here’s the rules: 

First, and foremost, no one should know about our relationship being fake, not even our families. The five of them are really close to my parents so if they know they would probably be quick to catch on!”

“Yeah, even Yuri is close to my parents,” Aera agrees as she watches him write it down.

“Second, let’s limit our physical requirements. My friends wouldn’t really expect much PDA coming from me, so it’s fine if we limit it to just holding hands at most.” He waits for her approval of the rule, but her troubled expression told otherwise. 

“You see, I’m a very touchy person even with Yuri.” Aera pouts her lips and forms into a weird duck face. “How about we do as much as hugging, is that much okay?” 

“It’s fine. I mean we aren’t going to be hugging all the time.” Renjun agrees as he writes down the second number.

“Third, if you end liking someone along the way, then we’ll call this off. I mean in the first place, isn’t this because you have to show Yuri that you don’t like Jaemin, and if someone shows up in the middle of it, this setup is gone. Wouldn’t it be better to convince her that you don’t like Jaemin with someone you actually like?”   
  


Aera nods her head, that rule was rather quickly decided upon. 

“Lastly, the way we’ll end this contract, aside from the one mentioned earlier, is by admitting it to the two of them that we were just faking it.” Renjun turns to look at Aera waiting for an answer, but all he got was silence. “One lie would always lead to another, and then another and then another, until it spirals out of control. I don’t want that to happen.” Renjun leans in closer hoping to make her look him in the eye. 

“Aera, look at me and tell me you agree.” 

Aera slowly lifts her head and looks him in the eye. She bites her lips as it trembles. There was a certain uncertainty in the way she was looking at him.

“You have to understand that if we don’t come clean we’ll only ruin our friendship with them and we’ll ruin each other’s friendship as well. You have to agree.” He reaches out to squeeze her hand.

“I agree.” As soon as she says those words, he let’s go of her hand and writes it down. He gives the paper one final look before handing it over to her to read it. As she reads through all the rules they’ve set, it felt more real now than it did earlier. Right now, they were actually on a mission to help their friends. 

“I should remind you that I have to buy something in your store today, so that means a free canvas for me!” Renjun takes the piece of paper from her hands and folds it neatly before shoving it into the corners of his wallet. He holds a triumphant smile as he cleans up the artwork he barely touched today.

Aera decides to stand by the window and watch the team practice. From afar, the bleachers did feel kind of lonely for one person to be sitting there all the time. She wonders how others see her from this far. She sits on the ledge by the window and pretends she was sitting there cheering for Jaemin’s name as she always did. 

The door to the art room opens and both Renjun and Aera’s heads turn towards it. “Renjun, shouldn’t you be on your way to the…” The girl trails off as she sees Aera approaching Renjun.

“I was about to leave,” he gives her that bread-like smile he often gives out.

The girl by the door nods her head, she was about to leave them be, but before she did she says, “by the way congrats to the two of you!” Then she leaves them together.

“That girl has a crush on you,” Aera gives him a little push to the side. 

“What are you talking about?” Renjun gives her a weird look as he puts the last of his stuff in his bag. 

“Wait? You actually don’t see it?” Aera wanted to hit him so bad.  _ Was this the side effect of being popular? That they have to be completely dense too?  _

“Go and get your bags,” Renjun pushes her forehead away from him, but he pressed on it lightly, but for a second Aera appeared to have had her off button pushed. She goes stiff and leans back. She then walks like a robot to grab her back. 

“What are you doing?” Renjun stands by the door giving her a weird look but with a huge smile on his face. 

“Just want to see how it feels like to not be able to detect emotions.” She jokes.

“Just so you know, robots could actually determine emotions, it's them who don’t have it.” Renjun lowers his body a bit to grab her hand, which to his surprise made her seem all tense. “Just to prove I can tell emotions,” he squeezes her hands and then interlocks his fingers with hers. “Right now, I could tell how tense you are.” He teases.

Aera coughs out the awkwardness that followed, because he was absolutely correct, but she didn’t want to admit it. 

Though it was late, there were still a number of people walking through the hallways most of which were people with co-curricular activities. With every single person passing by almost every single one of them did a double back just to confirm what they were seeing. As if they wanted to confirm with their own eyes that the infamous Na Jaemin’s fangirl was dating one of Na Jaemin’s friends. It was quite a combination to see with their own eyes. 

However, the real test was only about to begin. 

  
  
  



	5. Operation One

**5: Operation One**

The teams were still so busy in their practice that they didn’t notice both Renjun and Aera walk by them hand in hand. However, there was one person on the bleachers who did see the two of them walking together. Renjun let’s her walk ahead of her, helped by the small of her back.

Yuri sits there in Aera’s usual spot with her eyebrows knit together at the sight that was unfolding right in front of her eyes. She almost dropped her phone when he helped her up the bleachers. 

“Aera?” She points at her smiley best friend who immediately sat down beside her and leans her head against her shoulder. “Renjun?” She then points at the boy who only gave him his iconic bread-like smile. 

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” Yuri shakes her whole body and stands up right in front of both Renjun and Aera. She stands right in front of them with her hands on her waist and her eyes probably boring into both their souls. All her best friend gave her was a sheepy smile, as if she hasn't done anything wrong.

"Don't you have something extremely important to tell me?" Yuri gives Aera a look, that same one mothers give to their children when they misbehave. "Actually, don't the two of you have something to say. Huh, Renjun?"

"Well," Renjun shrugs his shoulders, "we're dating." He really was direct to point, isn't he? 

"I could see that!" 

"Than what is it you want to know?" Aera tilts her head to the side.

"Like, when did anything even happen between the two of you? When? Where? How? And Why?" Yuri looks like she was about to lose her mind, the only thing missing was her grabbing her hair and walking back and forth to fit the vibe of her continuous asking.

"Okay! Okay!" Aera stands up and puts her hands on her shoulders to pull her back down on the bleachers. "Where do you want to start?"

"We only started dating yesterday," Renjun interrupts their conversation and he reaches out to squeeze her hand as if he was telling her to leave the story making to him. Though, it was not originally planned, they needed a believable story and he knew that it was up to him to fill those in.

"Yesterday? All of a sudden?" Yuri looks at Renjun, not exactly believing him.

"You didn't tell her?" Renjun gives Aera a look as if he was questioning her, though on the receiving end she was just as confused as Yuri was. "I've been visiting her after class in their art store, and I sort of confessed a week ago and asked her out yesterday." 

Yuri nods her head as she hears no stutter with the way Renjun spoke and not to mention how their eyes never left each other's. "And she agreed?"

Renjun discreetly tilts his head giving her the sign to continue the story. Aera nods her head before facing Yuri, squeezing Renjun's hands in the process. 

You can do it! It's as if the way he rubs her hand told her that. It was neither tight nor loose, it was heavy enough for her to feel his presence but not controlled. Just a presence that was reassuring her that she wasn't in this alone.

"Well, his confession," she turns towards Renjun and scrunches her nose before looking back at Yuri, "didn't seem like a confession."

"So, it wasn't until yesterday I understood what he really meant, you know?" Aera assures Yuri with a smile. Yuri didn't believe it at first, and if it wasn't for the pureness in Aera's eyes she wouldn't have believed them at all. 

Yuri goes silent for a few seconds. At this moment the soccer coach's whistle echoes throughout the field and all their heads faced towards the group of boys who were busy packing up and getting ready to leave. For a few seconds the two of them forgot that they were in the middle of a conversation with Yuri. Until she tells them, "I'm happy for you!" Her voice was low and almost unheard, but Aera hears it and she could see the sudden ease in her expression.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Aera let's go of Renjun's hand and grabs Yuri's. "Even so, I'm happy and contented where I am, be happy as well."

Yuri slowly nods her head as she turns towards the group of boys on the field work one of them waving his hand at her. "Yeah," she huffs out.

△▽△▽△▽△▽△▽△▽△▽△▽

If there was one thing Renjun feared about this relationship the most, it was confronting the other members of their friend group. First there was the boy who could practically read through him, Na Jaemin. Them there was the boy who could read the room so easily, Lee Jeno. Then there was the people smart, Shotaro. Then there was the two biggest struggles of his life, two people who could basically read him like he's the abc's, Liu Yangyang and Lee Haechan.

"Are you really dating Aera?" Shotaro finally asked the question, since no one on their table wanted to open about the elephant in the room. In this case the elephant on their table in a fast food restaurant, whole the two girls were busy ordering food by the counter.

"So, the rumours have reached the five of you, huh?" Renjun leans back on his chair with a smug smile on his face. He was pretending to be proud and triumphant about getting together with Aera.

"Who hasn't heard of it is more the question to ask," Yangyang takes a sip out of his drink while rolling his eyes.

"Even I saw you two this morning," Jaemin nods his head as he sat across from Renjun. "The two of you were flirting out in the open when I got to school." Jaemin only gives him a weird look, something that he could only interpret as something between disgust and doubt.

"I mean, you did mention she was cute but I didn't think you actually liked her to this degree." Haechan who was sitting right beside Jaemin pokes his food with a fork not even raising his head to look at him.

Right, he's forgotten about that time he called Aera cute, roughly around their school festival last year. Aera was dressed as some type of princess and anyone who saw her couldn't help but mutter 'cute', but in a fluffy and squeezably kind of way. Though he meant it the same way as everyone else did, he was lucky he said that, possibly fooling his friends even more.

"I had no idea you found Aera cute!" Yangyang couldn't help but feel like he missed out on something completely important.

Renjun could only give him a smile. 

Though the group goes silent once the two girls return to the table. Renjun's eyes followed Aera, as if he was completely smitten by her, though it was obviously an act. "Stop it you have honey dripping out of your eyes. It's disgusting!" Jeno gags right beside him.

Renjun rolls his eyes pretending to be offended. "Hi," he softly greets her as she sits down.

Aera forces a smile on her face and turns towards him, "miss me already?" 

As if simultaneously the whole table gags at the two, it was cringey but slowly everyone was beginning to buy their lovers stage. 

"What the heck was that reaction?" She looked at eveyone with a huge entertained smile on her face. 

"It's not like we're about to suck faces in front of you guys. Grow up!" Renjun sneers at them, but noticed that one of them tensed up. He wasn't born yesterday to realize that there was something going on that he was missing. But Haechan pulls his phone out of the under of the table and began flinching every once in a while.

For a second, he thought Haechan might actually like Aera.

Aera hands Renjun's food and raises her eyebrows quickly at him. As if she was saying, 'we're actually fooling them!' 

The meal time they shared was nothing out of the ordinary. They talked just as they always did, talked about school, clubs, and their teachers. Both Renjun and Aera were thanking the heavens that they didn't push further on the topic of them dating because if they did, without a polished story, they would have most likely slipped at some point.

After a while, the sun was now gone and the eight of them stood outside the fast food that stood near their school. "Are you going to walk Aera home?" Haechan asked Renjun, as he would usually do when they stayed up until this late.

Aera and Renjun exchange knowing looks. "Well that would be the plan," Renjun grabbed unto Aera's hand and lifted it to show Haechan.

"Right," he nods his head slowly, "I forgot about that." He admits. Since Haechan, Renjun and Aera lived in the same neighborhood and Aera's home sat further from where Renjun and Haechan's homes are, they usually took turns making sure that they got back home safely. But with Aera and Renjun dating, it was almost a bit too clear that Renjun was supposed to walk her home no matter what.

"Well, I don't want to third wheel a couple in their honeymoon phase," Haechan gags and heads towards their neighborhood ahead of the two of them.

Hadchan greets everyone with a goodbye, just as Renjun and Aera did. Jaemin volunteers to walk Yuri home, though his house and hers was quite a distance apart. Renjjn and Aera exchange knowing looks with huge smiles on their faces. The two follow Haechan closely from behind, holding each other's hands to make it seem more believable once he turns around and looks at them. Since the walk wasn't exactly far, Haechan eventually takes a turn without even looking at the two of them. On normal days, when Aera wasn't out eating with them Renjun would usually take a turn, but he was obliged to take her home safely. 

Though, once they both knew they were safe from Haechan, Renjun let's go of her hands. "Did you see it, Renjun!" Aera jumos up and down with a huge smile on her face. "By the end of it, Yuri looked like she actually believed us!" She jumps up and down a bit too close to Renjun's face that if he leans forward the two of them would most likely bump heads.

"Not to mention, the two of them walking home together." He reminds her of the scene where the two of them began walking without turning their heads back.

"Honestly, I could see pink around them! They're so cute!" She squeals, probably alarming a few of the people in this part of their neighbourhood.

"It really seems like you don't like Jaemin," Renjun couldn't help but point it out. 

"That's exactly why we're faking this, remember?"

"But Yuri wouldn't hesitate this long if thinks that way, Aera." Renjun pushes her forehead, as if he was Itachi sending his final wisdom to her as he was ready to—spoilers— pass away.

"And what does that mean?"

Renjun sighs. Then he turns to the left to see the shop that he was just in yesterday. It was nothing fancy of a home, nor shop, but it was one that just compelled you to enter and take a look around. "Don't you owe me a canvas?"

Aera stops walking and looks at their shop. "I do owe you one, but you have to at least buy something," she reminds him.

"But didn't I tell you that I do need to buy something?" Renjun then walks into the shop a bit too comfortably.

At this moment, Aera's phone buzzes in her pocket, but she was too preoccupied with telling Renjun not to show any signs of affection in front of her dad or else he would freak out. Being too caught up in the moment, she misses one important thing about their plan. The countdown to Renjun and Aera ending their relationship was about to begin.

' _Hey, I know you're with Renjun right now and might take awhile before you see this, but I just started dating Jaemin. Can't wait to tell you the details!!! I love youuu Aera!'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas ☺️


	6. When Did I—

**6: When Did I—**

After class, as usual Renjun was sitting in the club room doing some paintings. For him sitting inside this room, often alone, but not always alone, was a daily thing for him. Just as it was today, he was sitting in the art room with their club advisor playing some classical music at the back while a number of them prepared their works for the school festival that was coming up, but at the essence of it, majority of the people in this room are building their portfolios to submit to universities.

Expecting today to be a calm day with Aera probably sitting in the bleachers watching the soccer team practice and walking her home, he was humming to himself along with the background music. That was until someone knocked on the door. The club advisor greets the person at the door.

“Renjun!” She calls out his name. “Someone’s here to see you,” Renjun for a second felt confused. He wasn’t exactly expecting anyone-- oh it might be one of his classmates that was about to submit their homework, since he was the assigned class monitor. 

He hops down his chair and takes off the useless apron he wears, since he still gets his clothes filled with paint somehow. The only person he didn’t expect to see was Aera standing there with her sheepish smile. “Hey,” her greeting was hoarse, something that was so out of character for her. 

Renjun nods his head slightly towards his advisor and closes the club door. “Why are you here?” He asked her a bit confused with their arrangements today, they didn’t discuss meeting each other at the clubroom today. “I thought you were going to be at the bleachers,” Renjun leans against the wall across the club’s door. Though he feels it, there was a certain heavy aura around her.

“I just didn’t feel like it and,” her voice trails off as her hand reaches for her elbow hugging her front part with her own arms, “I didn’t know where to go.” She doesn’t even lift her head.

Renjun bites down on his lips. “Did something happen last night?” 

She instantly freezes up in front of him as her hands behind to soothe her arm. She lifts her head and then she takes a deep breath before smiling at Renjun. “Jaemin and Yuri started dating!” Her voice was excited, but everything else about her doesn’t seem to be excited about it, the news she was conveying. Her eyes were dead, but she had a huge smile on her face. 

Renjun sighs. “Wait for me here,” he stands up and walks back in the room. Aera watches from the window of the room and as he grabs his bag and tells their adviser something before she nods her head with a smile on her face. 

Aera stands there confused with why he was holding his bag and was practically leaving the club when he doesn’t usually leave that place early. Renjun begins walking ahead, but she remains there standing. “Aren’t you going to follow me?” Renjun stops walking and turns around to still see her standing by the art room club door. 

“R-Right,” Aera nods her head before lightly jogging towards him. 

She walks beside him and takes notice of a lot of things. She knows that Renjun was good looking, but seeing him this close was really a treat to her eyes. He was indeed so different from the rest, and it came as no surprise why a number of girls actually liked him. He was kind and easy to approach, which was probably one of the reasons she chose him to pretend with her. He has probably never hurt a fly in his life, he was gentle and was kind to others. She couldn’t help but feel like he lacked in the flaws department. She’s known Renjun for as long as she’s known Jaemin, but she never really took notice of these until now.

“Here,” Renjun sits down on one of the benches on the other side of the school from the soccer field. He puts his bag down and leans back. 

“What are we doing here?” Aera puts her eyebrows together as she looks at the place where he was sitting down. She dusts off the chair and then sits down beside her. 

Then it was silent for a few seconds. 

“You know, Aera, you don’t have to fake that smile in front of me,” Renjun suddenly tells her. 

“What?” 

Renjun sits up straight and turns his whole body towards her. He grabs her shoulders and makes him face her. “I said,” his eyes dead set on hers, “you don’t have to pretend you're happy right now.” 

“B-But I am happy for them!” Her voice breaks, betraying her at the moment.

“Yeah, you are happy for them,” Renjun agrees with her, even nodding his head, “but you can also have your heart broken.” 

That was all it took before she cupped her face into her hands hiding her face away from him. “I said that I,” she hiccups, “don’t like him,” hiccup, “but why am I hurting?” She sobs into her palms, but she feels assuring hands around her wrist which led to her opening her hands showing her face. She sees Renjun with a certain look of concern before he scoots in closer to her to let her cry on his shoulders. “When did I--”

“Shh,” he opens his arms and lets her in his arms. He soothes her back as she sobs into his chest. 

“When did I actually begin to like him?” She sobs into his uniform, probably getting it all messy, but both were too lost in the moment to even take notice. 

Renjun continues to soothe his back even squeezing her in reassurance every once in a while. Though they were both caught in the moment, they didn’t notice that the opposite side of the school from the soccer field was the gym where the volleyball team usually had their practices. It was only until they heard a whistle blow off that they realized where they were. 

Aera looks up at Renjun with her red face and swollen eyes, even though they were swollen her eyes grew bigger at the sound of the whistle. “R-Renjun,” her eyes move rapidly examining his face. “Yuri she’ll see me--” she stops talking when Renjun pulls her into a hug all of a sudden, but this time she feels his face at the top of her head. It almost felt like he pecked her at the top of her head, but since there was hair in between she couldn’t exactly tell. 

“Hey lovebirds!” That familiar voice calls out their attention, and almost instantly Aera freezes up in Renjun’s arms. 

Renjun lifts his head with a smile on his face. “We won’t be hanging out today!” Renjun calls out to the girl who was already walking towards the soccer field. 

“I’ll send it along!” Yuri’s voice was now a lot softer than a while ago.

“Congrats by the way!” Renjun calls out back as Aera hears his chest vibrate as he speaks, well shouts in this case. 

Then it goes quiet for a few seconds. Aera lifts her head once again, but this time it was different, their faces were too close to be considered comfortable. Renjun looks away while Aera leans back, Aera suddenly sits up straight acting as if nothing has happened while Renjun scooted away and grabbed his bag. They weren’t really ready to go, but if he really needed to he could just disappear any second now.

“T-Thank you,” Aera rubs the back of her neck as she offers Renjun a small smile, now more confident about it than a while ago. 

  
  
  
  



	7. Am I Even Pretending

**7: Am I Even Pretending**

If there was any better way to describe how she felt right now, it was clouded, completely clouded. Her mind was completely clouded by the warmth of Renjun's arms. She felt his warmth all around her, it was such a different feeling from when she would be hugged by Yuri. There was a certain warmth that calmed her down, but ultimately made her heart was certainly wavering into places she shouldn’t even jump into.

With her head low and mind completely occupied, she didn’t seem to notice the bells at the top of the door ringing. She never takes notice of the boy who stands right in front of the counter to call her attention.

She sighs deeply still completely lost in the warmth of his embrace. 

“Looks like you have something on your mind?” He speaks out, but she completely seems to think that the exact image of Renjun was playing in front of her. 

She glares at the image thinking it was just her mind playing games on her, it wasn’t fun anymore. She only realized she liked  _ liked  _ Jaemin yesterday, then here her mind was playing games on her making her think of no one but Renjun. If she was dating Jaemin, wouldn’t this be cheating?

“Aera?” Renjun leans in closer and when she feels his breath up her face. She jumps back as her eyes grow larger and she puts her hands over her chest. 

“Why did you scare me!” Aera whines as she reaches over the counter to hit him by the arm. Though from his perspective all she saw was a small child trying to reach over the counter to hit him. He could tell that her feet were practically off the ground as she tried to hit him.

“I didn’t scare you!” Renjun steps back and laughs. “You were so caught up in your thoughts that you didn’t seem to notice me at all.” Renjun proceeds to walk behind the counter and comfortably takes a seat on the chair that was sitting right behind the counter. 

“W-What are you doing?” She turns around and leans against the counter and crosses her arms over her chest to give him a look.

“I was bored at home, you see,” Renjun shrugs his shoulders as he takes his phone out of his pocket. “Which is why I came here.” He points down at the floor with a smile on his face.

“That’s weird of you.” Aera honestly thinks it's weird that he suddenly walks into the shop right when she was thinking about him. Almost as if the cosmics wanted nothing more than to disrupt her even more. “Just tell me honestly, why are you here?” 

“Art block,” he sighs and gives her a little shy smile.

“You could’ve just said so in the first place,” she turns back around to look over the counter, since the more she looks at him the more her mind begins to wonder and would probably like to take advantage of her situation with him. 

Renjun proceeds to sit behind her in silence, though she admittedly feels a bit more conscious than usual, but being around him there exists this certain warmth. As if birds would start chirping and all she needed was a bed straight in the middle of the woods for her to rest. Though it is an exaggeration, being around him there was a sense of comfort almost as if she’s been with a long time friend. She especially needed this right now, since she couldn’t exactly confide with Yuri about everything right now. 

The bells to the shop’s door rings and she immediately lifts her head to greet the customers, only for her smile to turn from the one that greets customers to one that she couldn’t really put under a smile category.

“Yuri?” Though her voice lights up at the sight of her. There was a certain thing she wasn’t ready to face just yet, especially concerning her little feud with herself. Things were already complicated, she wasn’t in the mood to see Jaemin, especially now where he’s tailing her best friend.

Yuri approached the counter with a huge smile and was quick to take notice of the boy sitting behind it. “Oh hi,” she steps back at the sight of Renjun behind the counter, maybe a little too comfortable with his position there. 

Renjun blinks a few times before getting up on his feet, only for him to see Jaemin standing behind Yuri. His eyes then moved towards Aera, he was expecting an uncomfortable look on her but to his surprise it was as if she was fine with it. Has she always been this good at pretending?

"Renjun, I didn't expect to see you here." Jaemin was just as shocked as Yuri to see his friend behind the counter. The new couple understood that Renjun and Aera was a thing, but they didn't expect to see Renjun at Aera's place.

"So," Aera interrupts the weird silence that stood upon them, "why did you come by?"

"Right!" Yuri's face immediately lights up as she walks towards Aera and grabs her hand. She quickly turns towards Jaemin and grabs his hand to lead him closer to the counter. Renjun, once again, gives Aera a concerned look but her expressions remain the same.

Renjun then placed his hand on her waist a bit too gently as if he was asking permission before he pits it down. However, he backs out and his hand end up on the arm opposite of him to pull her closer to him. He turns to look at her face once again, again no change of expression.

"Jaemin and I were thinking about asking the two of you to a double date." There was a glint of excitement in Yuri's eyes as Aera meets hers, but as she turns to look at Jaemin there was no else he was looking at but her. She couldn't help but notice that he was in love with the warm speak in her eyes, the same speak the that Aera finds the most comforting. 

Renjun waits for Aera to reply, but she didn't. He squeezed her arm gently as if telling her that it was her que to speak.

It goes quiet for a few more seconds.

"We'd love to go!" Renjun answers in her stead instead. "Right?" He moves his head closer to her face, right now he finally takes notice of her expression. The pure blank expression she was forcing herself to have hiding, probably, the multiple emotions she was feeling right now.

"Yeah," her voice meek as her cheeks began to feel warm with Renjun's face a bit too close to hers. 

Yuri’s eyes move between their small exchange, to which she only turns her head towards Jaemin and signals for them to walk out of the shop. Indeed it was hard to be with a couple in their honeymoon phase. Though Yuri could easily read her friend’s expression, the two boys seem to lack a certain comprehension with her averting gaze and flushing cheeks. 

“The date’s this weekend, make sure you get ready for it!” Yuri reminds the two of them once more, this time both their heads turn towards Jaemin and Yuri. “See you!” Yuri grabs, well more like, drags Jaemin out of the shop, that was not without Jaemin giving Renjun a look. 

Jaemin’s eyes scan his friend’s face. His eyes felt like he was looking through crystal clear glass, rather than doubt it was more like a certain amount of interest like looking through gorgeous displays during the holidays. He scanned him from his hands on Aera to the almost blank expression he had on his face as he watched Yuri and Jaemin walk away. Though he appeared to playing with their presentation his actions were enough to tell Renjun that Jaemin wasn’t exactly believing their little show.

Of course, no one else would as easily read him as he did.

  
  
  



	8. Preparation

**8: Preparation**

Her room was probably at its cleanest state right now, books kept neatly, a bit too neatly. Her bed sheets were new and it smelled like it. It wouldn't be an exaggeration that anyone could lick her floor from how clean it was. "Is someone coming over?" Her father peeks over the door and she immediately jumps on the spot while fixing her desk.

"Uhm," she rubs the back of her neck and looks up to give her father an awkward smile. She couldn’t exactly admit that someone was coming over, especially the fact that the person coming over is a boy. 

“Well, your mom and I would be meeting your aunt,” he tells her daughter before walking over to her and giving her a kiss on the forehead. 

“See you later!” She calls out as her father disappears into their hallway. It didn’t take long for her to hear their car start up and their front door closing, probably from her mother leaving. 

Why was she suddenly nervous about meeting Renjun? 

Just before he left the day Yuri and Jaemin walked into their shop Renjun suggested that they should spend a whole day getting to know each other. She didn’t want to overthink about his words, there was nothing behind his words, they were just simple words that meant having Jaemin and Yuri believe in this huge lie they were putting up.

Indeed, as she was stuck in her thoughts with her mind going into places she wished it wouldn’t go to, especially not in an empty home, the doorbell rings and she jolts straight. 

She opens the door and there he was, just as he did look the other time he saw him, in clothing that had no stain of paint on it, but somehow— weirdly— he looked a bit more attractive than last time. 

“C-Come in,” she stammers on her words and she mentally takes note of the first thing she ruined today. She moves to the side of the door as Renjun enters taking his shoes off and then walking into her living room. Once he stood there patiently waiting for her, she shuffled towards him as she kept her head low and avoided eye contact with him. She leads the way to her room and almost instantly she hears her heart beat echo as absurd images come into her mind. 

“You can take a seat anywhere,” she tells Renjun with a forced smile on her face, but continues to avoid his gaze.

Renjun quietly does exactly as she says. He takes a seat on her study table, still feeling a little too conscious about sitting on her bed. He coughs catching her attention, finally she looks up at him and instantly he sees her red cheeks. “Are you okay?” His voice softer than usual.

“I’m fine,” she looked away from him once again as she pressed the back of her hand on her cheeks. 

“Should we get straight to the point?” Renjun crosses his legs as he leans his elbow on her desk and looks at her. 

Aera blinks a few times trying to understand how Renjun was sitting in front of her, inside her room. Indeed this boy just felt like a different person recently, the way he carried himself, the aura, just him sitting on a chair— everything felt different. “Sure,” it takes a while for her to realize that the reason he was staring at her was because he was waiting for a reply.

“Alright,” he takes a deep breath in, “then let’s get the basics of our story down first. We need to make up what we like about each other.” 

Aera stops and closes her eyes for a few seconds before swallowing her saliva and slowly opening her eyes once again. The heavens were really testing her weren’t they? He looks at him up and down, taking into account his image. What was making her heart waver for this boy? Was it the kindness he was showing her, because anyone would take it the wrong way. Was it this image, this god damned gorgeous image of this boy in front of her. She wasn’t exactly sure, but she needed an answer.

“How about you go first?” She squeaks out not being able to think of an answer.

Renjun sighs and closes his eyes for a while. He hums and she swears the sight in front of her was something she was to keep in her mind forever.

She was acting like a fangirl again, wasn’t she? 

“I could say,” she starts off with a lie, “that I like your…” She pauses as soon as Renjun looks at her. The absolute pressure his eyes had on her made her feel a bit too conscious right now. “I like you,” she looks up.

Renjun raises an eyebrow at her.

“Can’t I just say something like that?” She rubs the back of her head making sure she turns away from Renjun.

He shrugs his shoulders. “That makes sense,” he shakes his head a bit before going back to thinking about his answer. “Should I say something like I like your passion or something like that?” 

Aera blows out a deep breath as she tries her best to stop her cheeks from turning boiling hot. She hears her heart beating all the way to her ears, as if it were a deep bass constantly playing in her ears. Not to mention, that her stomach was going crazy.

“Well,” Renjun speaks up completely ignorant of the things that were going on with her. “Let’s move on to the next agenda, which even I feel a bit weird about,” he takes a deep breath and blows it out, “honestly.”

Aera’s ears perked up at what he just said. Was he conscious of her too? 

“I’ve been getting a bit touchy with you in front of everyone, even though I told you I wasn’t.” Renjun avoids eye contact with Aera as he rubs the back of his neck. His feet begin juggling up and down as his face continues to turn away from Aera. She couldn’t exactly read how he was taking this in. “Since, we’ve started it that way, it would be weird to suddenly change the pace of this relationship. Which is why I thought about getting used to being around each other with…” his voice trails as he peaks towards the girl whose eyes unconsciously remain to stare at him.

Then the room falls quiet.

“With what?” Aera breaks the silence. 

Renjun sighs and eventually stands up from where he was sitting. He then looms over her as she remains seated on her bed. He puts his hands in his pocket. “We should stop tensing up everytime we touch hands.” 

Aera’s eyes blinked a few times. 

If it weren’t for Renjun’s hand, which he held out for her, she would have remained staring at him. Her face felt like instead of heating up suddenly lost all the blood flow in it. Her mind was having a hard time processing this little preparation they were doing. She hasn’t exactly sorted out how she was feeling towards him, not to mention how she was still feeling about Jaemin. It’s not exactly like she didn’t like him anymore, but don’t people normally take time before they move on. She only just realized it herself - well more like she only recently admitted to herself - that she was in love with Jaemin.

“Come on,” he puts his hands closer to her, this time leaning down to meet her eyes a bit closer. Renjun doesn’t exactly realize what he did until he could basically see his reflection in Aera’s eyes. He jolts back and looks away biting down on his lower lip, he begins unconsciously tapping his feet on the ground again. “I still need some stuff to do,” he lies, hoping to get this weird atmosphere between them over with.

Aera takes a deep breath in, trying to prepare herself. She slides her hand into his, this time it was different. To say his hands have changed wasn’t exactly an exaggeration, well to her at least. Maybe because it was the first time that she actually held his hand without thinking of anything other than him. He was the only thing in her mind.

“It isn’t that bad, next time we shouldn’t flin -” Renjun turns his head to look at Aera only to take notice of her intense stare at their hands that were merely touching. He wasn’t as inexperienced with relationships for him not to notice her red cheeks. 

Renjun pulls his hand away.

Aera looks up at him, but he turns the other way. If it weren’t for his embarrassingly red ears, she would have thought that he really was a robot.

“I - I -” Renjun coughs and takes a step back. “I have something to do,” he lies.


	9. Double Date

**9: Double Date**

Aera swears she’s looked at herself from head to toe too much in the past few hours. She would walk into her room to fix her hair, then she would walk to the bathroom just to take a look at her makeup, hoping it wasn’t too much, then she would walk to their living room and use their windows as a full sized mirror to check her clothes as if they don’t own a full sized mirror sitting in the hallway of their home. Her father was manning the shop and for several reasons she wishes that when she walks out of their home, he would be in the storage arranging some stuff. 

Her phone dings in her pocket and she finally stops pacing around the house. She pulls it out to see the message she’s been expecting since the clock struck 15 minutes before their agreed meet up time - well his agreed pick up time.  _ ‘I’m outside the shop.’ _

She doesn’t bother to reply as she takes a look at herself one last time at the window in the hallways before walking out of their door slowly. She peaks her head out into the shop, since their home was connected to the shop, indeed she sees her dad sitting on the chair by the counter sketching on his notepad. This was probably a great time to leave the shop without him noticing, that was until she realizes that there were bells at the top of the door of the shop.

She sighs defeated. She was bound to tell him anyway - it was part of the plan. “Hey dad!” She calls his attention and immediately her father’s head lifts upward. 

“Where you going all dressed up?” 

“I actually,” she steps closer towards her father with a little shy smile on her face. 

The door to the shop opens and both their heads turn towards the boy standing by the door. Aera’s eyes went wide and she made sure Renjun saw the change in her expression. Renjun turns to look at Aera’s father with a smile. 

“Oh, Renjun,” her father calls out his name like he’s an old friend. For a brief second, her mind goes blank. She knew that this boy was a regular at the shop, she just didn’t expect him to be this close to her father. Now, how in the world would she tell her father that they were a thing - not exactly a relationship, but a thing.

“Mr. Lee,” Renjun walks up to the counter to give her father a hand shake. “I’ve recently finished the work that I’ve been telling you about.” 

“Really?” She sees her father’s eyes light up and she swore she didn’t want to tell him, not because he was an overprotective father, but because she would definitely ruin their relationship once the two of them ‘break up’ eventually. “I’ll drop by your place to give it a look.”

“You’ve been to his house?” The moment those words left her mouth she curses upon the world, her hands slap to her mouth and immediately she could see her father’s gaze go from Renjun to her.

“The two of you know each other?” Her father blinks a couple of times looking between the two teenagers.

“Actually -” “Renjun, I think we need to go.” Aera cuts him off as she turns around and leaves the shop. Renjun looks at where she was standing before looking at Mr. Lee, then he bows his head as a little apology for leaving too early. He follows her outside.

Aera had already turned the corner when Renjun walked out of the shop, he needed to jog a little to catch up with her. As soon as he turned the corner, Aera was standing there with her hands crossed over her chest and eyebrows knit together. “Renjun, change of plans,” she says as soon as she noticed that Renjun turned that same corner.

“What?” 

“No, I mean,” she looks up at him and for a brief second and immediately the image of his ears turning red plays in her mind. She looks away, “I don’t think my father needs to know were dating.”

“Didn’t you tell me that Yuri was close with your father?”

“She is,” she couldn’t deny. This was going to be a huge problem once Yuri decided to visit her place. “But…” she tries to think of a reason, but her mind goes completely blank as she turns to look at Renjun. She swore her warming cheeks were the last thing she needed right now. 

“But, what?”

Aera sighs. “Nothing, let’s just meet up with Jaemin and Yuri.” She looks away, finally letting her arms off her chest. Her father must favor Renjun a lot, he looked at him as if he was his own child. His eyes sparkled just as it did everytime they would go to galleries, he has that spark when he talks to Renjun. If this boy brought so much joy to her father for being his friend, then there should be no reason she stands in the way of her father’s friendship.

Renjun walks up next to her and immediately grabs her hand. “What are you doing?” 

“Going on a double date, what else does it look like?” Renjun raises an eyebrow at her.

“I mean there’s no need to do this -”

“If we suddenly bump into someone we know, wouldn’t this be a better way to convince them that we’re actually dating?” 

“Fine,” though her voice seems like she was forced she grasps onto his hand as well. With their hands linked together the space between them seems to lessen as they walk to the place where they were supposed to meet the actual couple. She didn’t realize it until her shoulders touched his arms and when she turned to look at him they were at an angle that was probably considered a luxury for the numerous people that had a crush on Renjun.

“Aera!” A familiar voice calls out her name while her eyes are stuck on Renjun. She turns to look at Yuri and immediately forces a smile on her face. She was too easily distracted by this boy holding her hand, wasn’t she?

Aera let’s go of Renjun’s hand to run to Yuri and gives her a hug. Renjun slowly comes up behind them as Jaemin also approaches the two friends. Jaemin reaches to greet Renjun with a little shake that they did, which he took without any second thoughts. Aera’s arms circles around Yuri’s and it was quite apparent what this double date would look like. Renjun and Jaemin walk behind the two girls quietly as they both enter into their own date.

“So, you really are seeing Aera,” Jaemin puts his arms over Renjun’s shoulder as they continue to tail behind the two girls. 

“I thought I made it clear,” the sarcasm in his voice evident as his eyes remained to keep track of the girl who was leaning her head against Yuri’s shoulder.

Jaemin raises an eyebrow at him. “I just thought you were -”

“If it’s about that can we please drop it,” Renjun cuts his friend off.

“I haven’t even said a thing.”

Renjun sighs and Jaemin feels his shoulders lifting and going down as he turns his head away from Jaemin. “Well, I’m not going to pester you further,” Jaemin finally gives in feelings how tense Renjun’s shoulders were under his arms.

“I don’t plan on ruining this date with that topic, so you better drop it.” Renjun hits Jaemin’s stomach, though he made it appear as if it hurt, it matched the feelings of a simple pat on the back.

Renjun’s eyes return towards Aera, who doesn’t even bother to turn to check on him, though why would she. She knows simply of the surface level relationship he and Jaemin shared. He sighs once again, catching Jaemin’s attention, there was no escaping what needed to be addressed. Eventually, once this whole thing is over, he has to tell her why he agreed to this set up.

“Renjun!” Aera finally turns around for the first time and his eyes react to her voice calling out her name. Though her arms were still on Yuri's, her eyes sparkled in ways that were only present when she was standing beside her best friend. “There’s an art store down the block from here, want to take a look?” 

Renjun smirks. “You want me to buy somewhere other than your art shop?” He slips away from Jaemin’s arms and walks towards her, hitting her forehead lightly with two spectators that stood there and watched their undeniable cute interaction. 

Their eyes that met each other were giving affirmative signals. Though their preparation was cut short yesterday, they were definitely playing along this thing well. That was until Renjun couldn’t seem to let his hands off of her forehead. As if her skin was magnet and his hands were the metal that upon being directly touched, it was impossible to remove.

“So, are you about to kiss?” Jaemin pops in making both Aera and Renjun jump away from each other. Both their cheeks burning up. 

Something sparked that time when they were preparing and its flame was beginning to burn. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!
> 
> I don't really feel too good about this chapter T.T  
> But hope you guys enjoy anyway
> 
> btw, I know I'm really bad at uploading, but I finished my semester and won't have classes until march so look forward to a more consistent update, hopefully


	10. Double Date and Kisses

**10: Double Date and Kisses**

Walking into the café, the smell of roast coffee immediately meets their noses as Aera and Yuri lead the way towards the seats. Usually, the couples would sit beside each other, but the case was different for this set of couples. The friends sit beside each other completely absorbed in their own conversations. 

Aera looks between Renjun and Jaemin, her eyes blink a couple of times before she asks the question, “how are the two of you friends?” 

“Phrase it differently, it sounds rude, Aera.” Of course, Yuri scolds her as she lightly hits the arm of her friend. 

Renjun and Jaemin exchange knowing looks between each other. “It’s a long story,” Jaemin speaks up with a smile on his face. 

“We aren’t in much of a hurry.” Yuri bats her eyes towards Jaemin. To which he responds with a little smirk and leaning towards the girl that was sitting right in front of him. His pointer gives her nose a little bop.

“And no matter what you do, you aren’t getting anything out of me either.” 

The little exchange made Renjun turn towards Aera with a concerned look, to which he was surprised to see that she was smiling at the little exchange that the two of them shared. She blinks a couple of times with a small smile on her face, until she feels the stare coming from across her seat. She turns to see Renjun staring at her, to which she replies, not with a smile, but her eyebrows raising.

“So, how did you become friends?” She asked him. He shouldn’t have turned towards her with concern.

“I don’t think it's necessary.”

“What do you mean?” 

“It’s hard to explain.”

“How is it difficult to explain?”

Renjun sighs. She didn’t look like she had any plan on dropping it any time soon. “You want the truth?” 

“And nothing but the truth.” A smile plastered on Aera’s face as she felt victorious after their exchange.

Jaemin nudges at Renjun, to which he responded with something that Aera and Yuri couldn’t exactly hear. The two of them begin to talk which seems like a little argument that went between them. So, they were this close to openly argue with each other, but no matter how many times she takes a look at their dynamic, it was definitely a weird combination.

“How about this, I’ll tell you the story, but it’s just the two of us,” Renjun finally turns towards Aera with a small smile on his lips, obviously forced, as anyone could observe.

“How about Yuri?” Aera turns her head to face Yuri, to which she returns her gaze to the two of them.

“I’ll explain it to her.” Jaemin suddenly stood up from the seat and began gathering the stuff he brought out of his pocket.

Yuri grabs hold of not Jaemin’s hand, but of Aera’s. “But we agreed that this was a double date.” She whines at Jaemin gripping tightly onto her best friend’s hands. 

“We did,” Jaemin sighs and grabs onto her other hand gently, “and we’ll meet up with each other again. That’s after I tell you the tale of how Renjun and I became friends.” He tugs on her hand gently making her loosen the grip she had on Aera. “I mean you’re curious aren’t you?” 

“If you’re going to tell the story why can’t we just hear it together,” though she whines as she stands up from the sofa in the cafe and follows Jaemin’s every step out of the place. Though she did have a point, there must have been a reason why they decided to separate the two of them.

Aera and Renjun were left staring at the silhouette of the couple that disappeared into the crowd. Renjun takes a sip out of his drink and then lifts his head up to look at this girl that has been giving him rather weird reactions. 

Is weird even the right term to use?   
  


“I still don’t understand why you have to separate us.” Aera crosses her arms over her chest.

Renjun sighs. “It’s something that needs to be told in a much more intimate manner.”

“Nothing’s making sense.”

Indeed there was no avoiding the fact that he had to tell her the whole story himself. It would be unfair on her part, since they were already in this together. “Jaemin and I became friends because of a certain person.” Renjun avoids every contact his eyes could make on her. She wasn’t his girlfriend - technically - but he felt a bit guilty having to tell her this.

Aera softly gasps at the mere beginning of the story. “You both liked the same person?”

Renjun’s legs unconsciously began feeling uneasy as it began shaking. “I really don’t want to elaborate on it,” he gulps down his saliva, “but it is just that.”

“Wait, wait, wait, you can’t just leave me on that note, Renjun.” She was basically sitting at the edge of her seat at this point as he continued to look away from her. “I’m assuming that both of you didn’t really get the girl.”

Renjun goes quiet. It was enough of a sign that between them someone did date that girl. 

“Jaemin dated -”   
  


“She was my ex,” Renjun finally gives in. It was his mistake for turning towards her when he told her this because he saw the change in her expression. At first it was as if something registered in her brain, then finally it sunk into her. She moves her position into a more comfortable one. Then the air between them gets oddly heavy. There was supposedly nothing going on between them, this was all just a ploy, a play, an act, but the atmosphere between them told them otherwise.

“So,” she decides to break the silence as they were nothing more than mere friends, there was no need to make such a huge deal out of this issue, “why did you break up?” 

Renjun scans her face, taking a look at her, before answering, “We were young, though we both still are, but we were even more before. She got into her first year of senior high school, and I was in the last year of junior high. It was just pent up anger that exploded one day,” he chuckles as he remembers the scene so vividly in his head, “we broke up the same day I got into high school.” He flashed her a bitter smile.

“So how did this girl come into the picture with your friendship with Jaemin?” 

“We were classmates back in junior high, though we were never particularly friends. Everyone in the room knew he liked this older girl, even I knew about it. Then one day, this girl Jaemin liked was helping around the art room and all I did to her was be a bit nicer,” Aera could already imagine how he was like. Renjun was the type to help someone when they needed even if it meant inconveniencing him. “Eventually this said girl began openly showing interest in me. At first I didn’t notice it.” Again, as Aera expected. 

“How did Jaemin come into the picture?” She asked again.

“Jaemin approached me one day to confront me about it, and as I said I didn’t exactly notice her crushing on me -” Renjun takes a deep breath. “A lot of things happened that time, and we sort of got into a fight - not a physical one though - just a fight.” 

Aera nods her head as her mind creates an image of two junior high kids at the back of an alley just shouting at each other. If she saw that image now she would both be concerned, yet doesn’t want to meddle between their spat. 

“To which, I of course, found out I was wrong about my side and he was right because this girl confessed to me.” Renjun makes this bread-like look out of his face, she wasn’t sure whether it was him being awkward about it or whether or not it was just him being a bit proud of that moment. 

“So, Jaemin comes in… where?”

“I was just about to get there.” Renjun rolls his eyes at her.

Though she was sure he would just babble again about his ex, something she wasn’t exactly quite fond of hearing right now. 

“Jaemin eventually apologized about the incident and gave me an okay for him to date this girl without him feeling any hatred towards him. After she and I started dating, I took it upon myself to approach him as a friend and a classmate. Though it was quite awkward at first, we eventually got along and he eventually got over my girlfriend at the time.” He shrugs his shoulders. “I mean we were together for more than two years.”

“Two years?” 

Renjun nods his head to confirm her being startled at what she heard.

“Wait,” she puts both her hands up in front of her, “you were how old when you started dating?” 

Renjun looks up to the ceiling as if he was trying to recall what age he was. “14, I think.”

Aera’s mouth slowly opened at what she heard. At fourteen she was still busy watching cartoons as soon as she got home at the time she was even quite obsessed with collecting toys. They were of the same age yet the lives they lived were completely different. She was almost amused at what she heard, because it just proved how little she knew about Renjun. 

Was she even worthy of standing next to him as his  _ girlfriend _ ?

“I think we’re getting really side tracked here,” Renjun amused at her change in expression. Indeed Aera was nothing like the girl he used to love, Aera was nowhere near as elegant as his ex, but she was pleasing to watch. He’s sure that it’s because of her extreme changes in expression. She wore her feelings on her face. 

Then her expression changes once again, this time a confused one. “I still don’t get it. Why do you have to tell me and Yuri separately?”

“There’s two reasons, one,” he puts his pointer up to begin to count, “it’s about someone he loved deeply. I don’t think the way I told you justified his feelings for that person, but Jaemin was in love with her, so much that even after we became friends and he had moved on from her he refused to befriend her as more than his friend’s girlfriend.” 

Aera nods her head. He was right because even as he told the story all she could hear was how much he adored that person. Though he never directly told her she understood the depth in which she loved her as well.

“Second,” he lifts his middle finger beside his pointer, “that guy just wanted a little time to be spent with Yuri, you’ve been keeping her to yourself the whole time.” 

Suddenly her face flushes. She didn’t realize it until now, she was so used to being the person that stood beside her constantly that she didn’t notice that she was taking away the word  _ date _ on their double date. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s fine,” Renjun assures her as his phone dings. He looks down and sees a message sent by the man himself. “Speaking of Jaemin, he said we could meet up already.” Renjun tells Aera as he stands up from the seats, to which she also stands up with him. He walks out to the side of the table and waits for her to stand beside him before reaching out his hand. 

Aera stares at it thinking about the fact that his hands have probably held someone else’s, but the difference between him holding her hand and the hand of the woman he loved was that he was happy to be doing it with one and forced upon the other. 

Though she does grab his hand and both their fingers intertwine with one another. “There’s one more thing I forgot to tell you.” Renjun speaks as they walk. 

“What is it?” 

“I mean as a friend you deserve to know this.” 

Aera nods her head giving glances at Renjun to show him that she was listening to him. Though it was nice knowing that she was a friend to this man. 

“I have certain plans to take her -” Renjun stops talking as Aera pulls him behind a wall. Her head peeks out towards the street. Of course he had to look into what she was looking at as well. He peeks his head and she sees Jaemin and Yuri sitting close to each other both their hands gripping tightly unto one another. Though there were no tears they were definitely talking in seriousness. Eventually, Jaemin leans in to give Yuri a kiss, he expected it to be on her forehead or cheeks since they were in public, but the quick peck to the lips caught him off guard. 

“They just kissed!” Aera doesn’t know whether to squeal or leave them alone. She turns to look at Renjun only for her to realize that the oddest of things just happened. 

A soft touch on her forehead and her posture perfectly fitting into one that place it was a great recipe for disaster, in this case an unwanted touch. Renjun immediately steps back upon the quick touch of his lips on her forehead. 

It was no one’s fault, that was what she wanted to believe in. It wasn’t his fault for standing too close to her, it was her fault for suddenly turning around (honestly thank god she was a bit conflicted with what she saw that she hunched her back or else she wasn’t exactly sure what else would’ve touched other than her forehead and his lips) and it was not their fault for having their hands stuck together. 

It was no one’s fault, but the complete weird feeling she was getting in her chest and stomach. She steps away only for her to realize that it did nothing as her back hits the wall. Renjun steps back and takes a deep breath in his eyes and looks anywhere else but at her. The odd feelings he felt both with them preparing for this date and meeting her, seeing her all dressed up, were back. 

This wasn’t supposed to go like this, yet there was no one to blame.

  
  
  



End file.
